"The
following is a guest review. The review
and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford
or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the
guest author."

Jeff continues his look at Hot
Toys figures, with a rather interesting one tonight - tell us all about
it, Jeff!

The new Hot Toys (HT) M-Icon figure may not be instantly recognizable
to some, in fact a lot of Westerners could be forgiven for knowing
little or nothing about Wong Ka Kui (WKK), even though some of his
early songs were recorded in English, the majority were in Chinese so
his music never made the language and indeed cultural leap over here,
but in Hong Kong, China and Japan he’s little short of a legend.
You’ll find a much more in depth bio of the man on wikipedia,
but in brief, he was the song writer and singer for the group ‘Beyond’ a
band, who after a rather wobbly start soon found themselves to be one
of the most popular and biggest selling artists in Asia. Tragically WKK
died in an accident while filming a Japanese game show on June 24th
1993, so these figures have been released, and indeed are to
commemorate the 15th anniversary of his death.
This is one of three versions available, there is also a ‘live’ version
‘MIS05’'.

And a memorial ‘green colour schemed’ figure of this version, (ltd ed
of 40) sold only at a charity auction, ‘MIS03’ meaning
it’s going to be very difficult to be a completist of the M Icon range.

Packaging: ***1/2
This box is basically the same construction as the first two M-Icon
figures, James Dean
and Marlon Brando,
so it’s the same shoebox design that flips open sideways. This time the
colour of the box is red to match the figures jacket and guitar, the
front has a silver foil blocked stylised, graphic picture of WKK’s face
in profile and again has the small metal badge in the top right hand
corner with the HT logo.

Inside is the printed-paper cover that you lift to show the foam sheet
that protects the front of the figure. Beneath this, WKK is completely
surrounded by die cut black foam. I wish all 1/6 figures could come
this well protected, but I get the feeling this is considered something
of a ‘showcase’ line for HT, so they made all aspects a little special.

Sculpt: ****
The last two M-Icon facial-sculpts were by Kang In Ae, this one however
is by Yulli (though Kang did do the impressive hand sculpts with this
figure).

This is stunning; I received him
the same time as my Appleseed, Tereus, TDK Bats and Joker, so it says
something that from a face-sculpting angle this is the one that blew me
away. It just looks so natural, Yulli really is turning out some
amazing work at the moment and this shows her prowess off
fantastically.

Though not hugely familiar with
WKK, the face looks spot on to me from all the images I’ve Googled
(like this image,
this image,
and this image),
and old video clips hosted on you tube. This just manages to look so
relaxed, soft and flesh like. The hair also hangs very realistically,
it’s sculpted as a separate piece but fits perfectly, and meets so
snugly around the ears you’d be hard pressed to know it is separate. He
comes with four hands in total. One right hand for gripping the neck of
his guitar and three left hands, two are in gesturing positions and the
last holds a plectrum. These are all specifically sculpted for WKK
showing specific positions and all have his trademark rings sculpted as
part of the hand.

Paint: ****A sculpt this strong demands
great paint apps, and thankfully it gets them. J C Hong, the HT golden
boy ‘du jour’ is once more on paint control and keeps things up to his
usual standards.

Super crisp work on the eyes,
with the HT patent, glossy wet coating. The skin tones are beautiful
and bring this already fantastic sculpt with its fine texturing to
life, his hair is pretty much just black, but still manages to look
real as the matte/silk colour used lets the sculpt beneath catch the
light and shadows very naturally. Virtually faultless, He also has some
nice tight work on his trainers (converse hi-top style) and also his
guitar. Another fantastic job!

Articulation: ****This is on the True-Type body
described here,
and has the specialised neck that is sculpted into the shoulders and
upper chest. A fantastic base body that allows this figure to pose very
naturally with his guitar, and lets his clothing hang convincingly.
None of WKK’s outfit hampers movement at all, well, I say that, his
drainpipes are a little tight, but it’s still full marks from me.

So, a nice selection, with the stand out piece being the guitar, which
shows some great detail and has super fine wires for its strings. The
strap even has what I thought at first was the ‘Fender’ logo written on
it as a repeat pattern, but on close inspection I saw it says ‘Ka Kui’…
cute!
The jewelery is all nicely scaled and his two small bracelets are
actually small metal chains. The ‘1992 Live’ figure also comes with a
microphone and stand, it might have been nice to include one of these
with this figure, but hey, you can’t have everything.

He also has the obligatory
figure stand, as do pretty much all HT 1/6 figures, but I managed to
get mine to stand fine, in fact I’ve had him posed for over a week in a
walking position with only one foot flat on the ground and he stays put
just fine.

Outfit - ****
Hot Toys have shown time and time again that they are not afraid to
tackle complex, intricate and quite frankly what would have been
considered near impossible outfits to pull off at this scale just a few
years ago. So when it comes to your more straightforward ‘civi’
clothes, they simply blow the competition out of the water. WKK comes
in hi-top trainers, drainpipe jeans, a long sleeved black T-shirt and a
red denim jacket. The jeans and jacket have working pockets, metal
rivets and scaled buttons, all are expertly tailored and though simple
they fit and hang supremely well, outstanding.

Fun factor- ***
This figure is obviously gonna find a far bigger fan base in the Far
East than it will in the West due to WKK’s megastar status there, I’ve
even heard him described as the Chinese John Lennon, but it has to be
said this is a very cool figure, regardless of whether you like his
music or not.

I originally thought the M-Icon
series was one I might try to ‘complete’ but the release of the charity
auction ‘green’ version pretty much put paid to that. However I still
wanted to get one of the three, and I was assured this one was the most
iconic, so he’s the one I went for. The fact that these three newest
figures in this line are the same person, and from the world of music
surprised me at first, I, like many, just took the ‘M’ to stand for
movies, but this opens a whole world of possibilities.

Who’s next, more musicians and
actors from the Far East (I’d love Chow Yun Fat holding the baby from
Hard Boiled) or maybe more of a nod to the West with Elvis, Lennon,
Hendrix, or maybe even Madonna or Jackson!

I’ve always considered that 1/6,
indeed all toy collecting is based squarely in the realms of popular
culture, so perhaps this line might reflect that and show us a few more
figures based on ‘real’ people!

Value: ***1/2
At present eBay seems to be the only place you’ll find this piece, and
his price is anything from $129 to. $250. My score is based on getting
him for around $120 to $130, if I’d paid $250 he’d only have one and a
half stars at best.
But this is an excellent piece of craftsmanship, and yet again
showcases why Hot Toys reign supreme at the moment.

Overall: ***3/4
It’s refreshing to get a figure that’s not packing enough heat to
destroy a small continent, instead we get a figure of a recording
artist who tried to highlight the inequality that many of us have
become complacent about on our planet. I freely admit that before the
release of this figure I knew virtually nothing about WKK, but having
read up on him, he certainly seemed like a cool character. And if he
managed to achieve the status of having a high end figure made of him,
released by Hot Toys, in their M-Icon series ‘no less’, then perhaps he
deserves a little more recognition than he gets.

Where to buy -Well, Sideshow is the ‘official’
Hot Toys promoter in the US, but it seems they must have said … Wong Ka
Who? As there’s no sign of this figure on their site. So, as far as I
can see, eBay really is your only option right now, and you’ll find it
roughly at the prices quoted above. I have a feeling this is going to
turn out to be the rarest of the M-Icons released so far, due to his
popularity in the Far East, so if you plan on ‘trying’ to be a
completeist of this series you’d better act fast! You could also try
Michaels sponsor MyAuctionLinks.com.